Jettisonable seat for airplanes



July 19, 1949.

JETTISONABLE SEAT FOR AIRPLANES Filed Dec. 15, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet lnvrtwrm X065? AIME Roam;-

R. A. ROBERT 2,476,770

July 19, 1949. I R.'A. ROBERT 2,476,770

JETTISONABLE SEAT FOR AIRPLANES Filed Dec. 15, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 2m/z/ewran Keane A/M Raamr July 19, 1949. Y R. A. ROBERT 2,476,770

' JETTISON'ABLE SEAT F R AIRPLANEQS Filed Dec. 15, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 5mum/roe Roam A/Mf Ross/er July 19, 1949. R. A. ROBERT V 347mm Filed Dec.15, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 8 A M vas/Yrs JETTISONABLE SEAT FOR AIRPLANESy .949. R. A. ROBERT 2,475,770

JETTISONABLE SEAT FOR AIRPLANES Filed Dec. 15, 1945 v 5 Sheets-Sheet 5Patented July 19, 1949 2,476,770 JETTISONABLE SEAT ron Arnpnnnns RogerAim Robert, Boulogne-sur-Shine, France g pueanonnecember 15, 1945,Serial No. 635,305v f In France September 5119, 2 i

Section 1, Public Law 690, August 8;, 1%.6' Q Patent expires Sept r-5,962- 2 Claims. 1 The difficulty for a member of an aircraft crew, forexample the pilot, to bail out in case of emergency is known. Forinstance, the pilot of a fighter must get out of the cockpit by apowerful muscular effort not only to. overcome the weight,

of his body and equipment, but also the air resistance which maybe veryhigh.

In any case, until now the pilot or any member of the crew is exposedwhen bailing out tobe hit by a part of the aircraft; this danger isincreased when an airscrew i located behind a member of the crew. Suchdificulty led-"often to give up certain designs of aircrafts having apusher airscrew behind the pilot, thoughthe design may be verysatisfactory from the point of view of the performance'of the aircraft.

The object of this invention is to eliminaterthe above defect. Thisinvention relates to an improvement in aircraft cockpit flooressentially characterised by the fact that the cockpit fioor is notassembled rigidly to the fuselage or fixed thereto, as it is the usualpractice until now, but is detachably mounted relatively to thefuselage, in such a manner that in case of emergency it may be readilyand instantaneously moved into a position allowin the member or membersof the crew to bail out directly.

According to this invention, the occupant of the cockpit,a-tthercritical. instant of bailing out,

has no special laborious manoeuvre to perform,

but only to depress a button or to pull ahandle which has forconsequence to detach immediately the cockpit floor from the aircraftand to abandon the pilot in the The cockpit floor may be detached fromthe fuselage either by gravity or under the positive action of anysuitable power means. In some cases, said detachment may be. completedby a catapultage out of the fuselage at a certain speed. The members of.the crew are thus expelled out of the zone in which they might be hitby any part of the aircraft almost instantaneously; the latterembodiment is specially suitable in the case of aircrafthaving'anairscrew or airscrews oi the pusher type.

The following description of the invention, given o'nlyfas an example,reference is made .to the annexed drawing in'which:

Fig. lis a sketch'of'a cockpit constructed according to the invention,showing diagrammatically in side view a first embodiment of theinvention during normal flight.

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the position of the cockpit floorcarrying the pilot seat, in which the pilot is ready to bail out.

Fig. 3. is a. detail yiew at a larger scale showing the hinge to -thefuselage of the floor supporting the pilot-Scat,

Fig'l lfisl another, detail yiew Showing the locking mechanisninitsiaetive. position.v

Fi iai fajdet" a. sketch of a second embodiment of the invention. 7

Fig. 3, is a View similar to Fig. 7' showing the cockpit, floortiltedto'freeth pil0t, but before the rr'n' im availedyiew showing thecontrol of n fet'rmgt ru .lthe. pilot seat I. is mounted upon a,detachable cockpitlfioor 2 hinged at. its rear end the. sharia. Alinking mechanism i locks the cockp tffloor thepo'sition shown inFig; 1. Infsaid pos tion, the floor bottom skin. 5 is flush with 'the"bottom' of the fuselage 6. or the aircraft. The pilot in thenojrmaloperating position, the hands on the control wheel or'fstick and thefeeton the, pedals 8? 1 Fig. 3 shhwsin more detail how the floor 2 ising dit he name '9 the 'ir i aid' mme i"! comprises; a transversalhorizontal shaft it; each end of winch is provijded with a flat obliqueprojection ll. Withach of said projection to operates a open clevisfliZcarried at the rear end of the near-21' Th'e distance between the endsl3 and M of eachcIevis'I'Z is larger than the thickness betweenboth*fiat'" faces of the projeca d 12: rrei ct e ateralln ran the floor 2.

Under n ma min ns. their nt Pa o anfloor 2 rests merely upon the rod I5through the two clamps I8, which are prevented to open by a T-shapedlock 2! pivoted on a pin 22. The lock EE is constantly kept under thetension of a spring 23 and, under said normal conditions, it is keptinto locking position by a trigger 24 which may rotate on a pin 25 andmay be actuated at its other end by means of an unlocking control 26. Aspring 2! pulls always down on this end of the trigger 24 to maintain itin contact with the look 2|. A stop 28 limits the action of the spring21.

When the control 26 is pulled upwards, the trigger 24 pivots around itspin against the tension of the spring 21, abandoning thus the lock 2| tothe action of its spring 23. This lock 2| pivots then about the pin 22as shown Fig. 5. The clamp 18, the jaws of which l3 and I1 are no longerretained, opens and under the ac- 7 tion of its own weight the floor 2'on which seats.

the pilot, is tilted around shaft Hi. When the inclined position of thefloor 2 corresponds to that of the fiat slopes of the projections ll,the floor 2 with the pilot is completely disengaged from the aircraftand falls in the airstream.

All the controls fitted in the floor 2 are simultaneously andautomatically uncoupled in order to allow for said disengagement of thefloor 2 I from the aircraft. A form of execution of such a controldetachable coupling is shown as example in Fig. 6. The control 29comprises two parts: a part 30 rigid with the, aircraft and a part 3!rigid with the cockpit floor. Both parts are connected together by atenon and mortise joint 32 kept normally assembled by means of a spring38. When following the general motion of floor 2, the part 3| is tilted,the tenon is disengaged from its mortise and the parts 39, 3! are.automatically disassembled.

Referring now to Figs. '7 to 9, showing a second embodiment of thedetachable or jettisonable cockpit floor according to the invention, theseat of the pilot 34 is fitted on a slide 35 which may slide, by meansof lateral rollers 36, along the upper face 31' of a jettisonable floor38. The latter floor may rotate at its rear end on shaft 39 rigid withthe aircraft framework 48. Furthermore, said floor 38 is attached to theaircraft framework 40 by means of a compass 4! one of the branches 42 ofwhich acts as a shock absorber in order to limit the tilting of thefloor 38 about the shaft 39. p

The rear end of a sandow 44, guided on rollers 45, fitted at the frontend of the floor 38, is hooked to a piston 43 of the carriage 35. Undernormal conditions, the oarriage.35 is assembled to the floor 38 by meansof a locking device 46, the details of which are shown in Fig. 9.Carriage 35 is provided with a hook 41 cooperating with a hook 48 whichmay rotate on pin 49 rigid with a flange 50' fitted on floor 38. Aconnecting rod 5| is linked at one end to hook 48 and at the other endto a lever 52 rotating on pin 53 of flange 50. Lever 52 bears against acrank forked lever 54 rotating on pin 55; between the branches 56 and 51of said fork is fitted an oval cam 59 which may rotate on a pin 59 withwhich a control lever 60 is rigid, constituting thus the control of thelocking device 46. Lever 69 is operated upwards in the direction of thearrow shown Fig. 9.

In case of emergency when the pilot desires to bail out, he operates thelocking means 4, freeing thus the front part of the floor 38 which thentilts about shaft 39. During said motion,

4 the branches of compass 4| are straightened and lever 60 is operated.

During the first phase of the motion, the circular portion 6! of cam 58cooperates with the branch 51 and, accordingly, the locking device 46 isnot opened and consequently during the tilting motion of the floor 38,the carriage 35 remains fixed relatively to said floor. Thus theposition shown in Fig. 8 is reached, in which the pilot is disengagedfrom the aircraft structure.

In said position, the branches of compass 4| are coextensive and thecircular portion 6| ends and is followed by an eccentric portion havinga quickly increasing radius; lever 54 is tilted about pin 55counter-clockwise against the action of a spring 92 and lever 52 isdisengaged, under the traction developed by the sandow 44; hook 48 istilted about pin 49 and the carriage 35 slides with an ever increasingspeed, under the action of the sandow 44 relatively to floor 38. Thusthe pilot and its carriage are bailed out at a sufiicient speed to avoidany risk of being hit by any part of the aircraft. Floor 38 is notbailed out.

The above described embodiments of the invention cover a cockpit for asingle pilot, but it is understood that they may be adapted to anycockpit for one or more members of the crew of an aircraft.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of myinvention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare thatwhat I claim is:

1. In an aircrafts fuselage, a tiltable trap door. a carriage slidablymounted on said trap door and supporting the pilots seat, means forcingalways the carriage towards the endof the door opposite its pivot pin,retractable means supporting said end of the door, an opening in thefuselage bottom allowing to tilt the door out" wards and means to retainthe carriage in a locked position until the door is tilted through adetermined angle.

2. In an aircrafts fuselage, a tiltable trap door, a carriage sliding onsaid trap door and supporting the pilots seat, means forcing always thecarriage towards the end of the door opposite its pivot pin, meansretractable at will, supporting said end of the door, an opening in thefuselage of the aircraft allowing to tilt the casing outwards, means tolock normally the carriage in its position of rest and means to releasethe carriage from said locking means only when the door has been fullytilted.

ROGER. AIME ROBERT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent: 1

Southerland Sept. 19, 1944

